I see a lot of the terms “fruits” in the scriptures. At first I had no idea what it meant and kept thinking it had to do with actual fruit. But after listening to Pastor Andy Woods’s explanation on fruit, it started to make sense.

What really began to stand out is that the Bible consistently uses the phrase bear fruit, not produce fruit. That difference might seem small, but it carries a completely different meaning for how I live out my faith.

In John 15:5, Jesus Christ says:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

That last part hits hard—apart from Me you can do nothing.
It makes it clear that fruit isn’t something I can manufacture on my own.

Then in John 15:4:

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

For a while, I honestly didn’t fully understand what “abide” meant in this context. It sounded spiritual, but vague. But the more I listened to these teachings, the more it became clear that abiding means to remain, stay connected, dwell, and continue in close fellowship with Jesus Christ.

It’s not just believing He exists.
It’s living in ongoing dependence on Him.

Abiding means:

• trusting Him daily
• staying in His Word
• remaining in fellowship with Him
• depending on Him instead of myself
• allowing His truth to shape my thinking and actions
• continuing with Him consistently, not occasionally

A branch abides by staying attached to the vine.

It doesn’t strain to grow fruit. It doesn’t force grapes into existence. It simply remains connected, and because of that connection, the life of the vine flows through it naturally.

That’s what really changed my understanding.

When I think in terms of producing fruit, I start thinking about effort and performance. I start asking:

• Am I doing enough?
• Am I serving enough?
• Am I showing enough evidence?

But abiding shifts the focus away from striving and back onto connection.

The fruit comes from Him.

That also explains why Epistle to the Galatians 5:22–23 says:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”

It’s called the fruit of the Spirit because the Spirit is the source of it.

And that’s where this reflection deepens for me.

Because this realization didn’t come from me just reading a verse on my own and immediately understanding it fully. If anything, I would have misunderstood it. I probably would have read “fruit” and turned it into something performance-based—something I needed to go out and do.

But sitting under verse-by-verse teaching, like what I’ve been listening to from Pastor Andy Woods, made me realize something important:

There is a real purpose to gathering, to going to church, to hearing scripture taught carefully and in context.

Without that, I wouldn’t have connected these ideas.

I wouldn’t have seen how Gospel of John 15 ties together with Epistle to the Galatians 5. I wouldn’t have noticed the emphasis on abiding versus striving. I likely would have interpreted “fruit” as something I had to go produce outwardly, missing what God was actually teaching.

It reminds me of Romans 10:17:

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

And also Proverbs 11:14:

“Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”

There’s something about being taught, about hearing the Word explained, that helps guard against misunderstanding and shallow interpretation. It brings clarity and depth that I wouldn’t reach on my own.

So now I’m seeing two things more clearly:

First, I’m not called to produce fruit—I’m called to abide, and fruit will come from that connection.

Second, I’m not meant to figure everything out alone. God uses teaching, fellowship, and the church to help me understand His Word more deeply and correctly.

That actually gives me a greater appreciation for those times of listening, learning, and sitting under scripture.

Because through that, what once seemed confusing—like “fruit” and even “abiding”—is now becoming something living and clear.

So the question I’m left with isn’t:

What am I producing?

But instead:

Am I abiding… staying connected to Him daily, and allowing Him to produce the fruit through me?